State Lottery Approved by One Vote
Source: Topix.net 27601

North Carolina is set to become the final state on the East Coast to start a lottery after the state’s lieutenant governor broke a tie Tuesday in the evenly divided Senate, voting to create a game supporters have sought for more than 20 years. Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Senate’s presiding officer, sided with most of her Democratic colleagues in breaking the 24-24 tie. Gov. Mike Easley is expected to sign the legislation creating the lottery, a cause he’s championed since his election in 2001.

The lottery appeared all but defeated last week, when the Senate left Raleigh after efforts failed to persuade one of the five Democrats and all 21 Republicans who have opposed its creation for weeks to switch their vote. Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Democrat, promised the chamber was done for the year and would not return. But Basnight changed his mind Friday. And with two Republican senators absent Tuesday, Democrats had the votes — with Perdue’s help — to pass the legislation creating the lottery. [Full text at site.]

I’ll grant Sen. Basnight one thing: he’s savvy and smart as a whip. One of the absent Republicans was on his honeymoon and the other had pressing personal business. What better time to call a vote on the lottery than when enough opponents are occupied that they won’t get to vote? Granted, the process of pairing could have prevented the passage of this bill, but it’s obvious which way the wind was blowing. I’m sure Sens. Brown and Garwood declined the option because they knew it would just come up again every year until Governor Weasel Easley got his way.

A lottery preys on the poor and will only give budget writers an excuse to pour more money into pork barrel projects. I’ve opposed it from the start; we don’t need a lottery in this state. But our illustrious legislature first decided that since they theoretically represent the people of this state (though they don’t act like it any other time), it “wasn’t necessary” to actually ask the people of the state whether they wanted a lottery. Then, they resorted to underhanded tactics to get the lottery passed. Did it ever occur to the legislature that the obstacles to the lottery were indicative of the fact that perhaps people didn’t want it?